When I was just getting started with getting my first business up and running in Antigua, the advice poured in from all quarters- from friends new and old. Friends, whom I’d recently befriended before moving to the Caribbean, rang in to express their mock and real envy.  They wished they could do as I'd done- exchange their cold for my sun.  In their minds, my business here would involve very little work and a lot of lounging on some beach with coconut in hand and dusky maidens at foot.

These friends were mostly men and women still quite young to what being a successful entrepreneur entailed. They failed to understand that as far as the coconut and dusky maidens go, I don’t like coconuts and well, if current local rumours are to be believed, I’m this strange creature who has no real affection for the local women. They also failed to understand that in snow or sun, no matter your location in the world, getting a foot (or any related body part) into business calls for pretty much the same ingredients.

You must be committed to working hard, paying attention to your surroundings and carefully observing the legal, cultural and other customs of the place. In paradise or hell, whether you are a “have it” or “have not”, you must tend very carefully to your vocation before you can even think of enjoying a vacation.

My other more seasoned friends- those I’ve known for a long spell or those I gained after moving to Antigua gave more sensible and wanted advice.  My middle-eastern neighbour with his brown family gave me a better understanding of the length of time some processes would take. Thanks to him, I got to know, beforehand, that certain bureaucratic and legal procedures involved quite a bit of manual work and so might take longer than I'd originally calculated. 

One long-time friend of mine, after hearing my plans, gave me his usual lecture on knowing when to walk hard and when to walk smart.  He reminded me of all the times over the years when we both found ourselves alternating between the two.  He also reminded me of the times when, because most things in life turn out to be of a mixture of this and that, we had to walk both hard and smart.

In addition to the very specific and solicited conversations I had with old and new friends who were themselves entrepreneurs, I was also the recipient of unsolicited advice from other quarters.

My fisherman had long taken to schooling me on the general nature of “dangerous people” (deceitful and dishonest people) and how to avoid them. It quite seemed as if every time our paths crossed, he had some new personal tale to share with me on this topic. My landlady too treated me to a session or two in which she spent near forty-five minutes explaining which nationalities made for the better employees in Antigua.

Indeed, during my early days on the island and even now, I don’t think there was or is any person who didn't or doesn't feel obliged to school me on some topic related to being walking hard or smart… in life and  in business.

(V). Damien